When I was young I asked my Dad (born & raised Lutheran) what the difference was between the Lutheran Church and the Catholic Church. He told me “they don’t have statues in the church and they don’t pray to Mary.” While a rather concise way to sum things up, when I moved to Germany I discovered there was a lot more to the history of the split between the two faiths. Matter of fact, if I had been around back then I might have been standing there on the church steps handing Martin Luther the nails to hang that thesis up. But I am wandering far away from the original point of this post. I was pretty amused when I came across the Old Lutheran Gift Shop: Sin Boldly line of products. Yes, “Sin Boldly”. Thanks to Making Light, I learned that “That’s from everyone’s favorite Martin Luther quote: “Sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly, for he is victorious over sin, death, and the world.” (Actually, what he said was Simul justus et peccator! Pecca fortiter sed fortius fide et gaude in Christo, qui victor est peccati, mortis et mundi,” but it’s not like he’d have been speaking English anyway.) “Sin boldly” is the part everyone remembers best.”
While you’re at the store you can also pick up some of the Wash Away Your Sins bath & body products. Ironically, even after all the years since the split between the Lutheran and Catholic churches, that’s something that would sell really well across the board. [via Making Light]
4 replies on “Sin Boldly!”
My Lutheran friend Kurt Goedecke (good German boy) who’s married to a Catholic puts the difference this way: “Catholics are into guilt, but Lutherans are into *shame*”. Dunno if that’s really true, but he sure likes to say it.
I darn-near bought that “Wash Away Your Sins” hand soap when Kathy was in town! If it hadn’t been $8 in the store we were in, it would have been mine. I thought it would make a great conversation piece in the guest bath. 🙂
Nah, the difference is that the Lutheran Church has a better ad agency. 😉
I found this quote of what Martin Luther said about “Sin Boldly” at oldlutheran.com (seems to be official). It may be the full rendition. Thought you might want to know.
Luther wrote a letter to his good friend Philip Melanchthon on August 1, 1521. In it he said:
If you are a preacher of grace, then preach a true and not a fictitious grace; if grace is true, you must bear a true and not a fictitious sin. God does not save people who are only fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly, for he is victorious over sin, death, and the world.
As long as we are here [in this world] we have to sin. This life is not the dwelling place of righteousness, but, as Peter says, we look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. It is enough that by the riches of God’s glory we have come to know the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world. No sin will separate us from the Lamb, even though we commit fornication and murder a thousand times a day. Do you think that the purchase price that was paid for the redemption of our sins by so great a Lamb is too small? Pray boldly–you too are a mighty sinner.